So Alive 2005 It’s been a good rocking year. It started with rehearsals in Finland followed by a European tour with Hanoi Rocks (some places I had never been before, like Paris) and 10 gigs in Japan. Then we did festivals in Finland, and later a full tour in Finland and recently, a 9 gig tour in Sweden. I haven’t toured this much since Electric Boys. I guess we’ve done roughly 75 gigs or something like that and the band keeps getting better.

A friend in Japan though I should have a japanese website and made one for me. Very nice move and if you haven’t seen it, its at http://www.connybloomjapan.com.

Speaking of Japan; what a great country to tour in.. This was the second time (first time was with Ginger and SG5) and I truly enjoy it. Great organisation, food and atmosphere. I'm glad I finally get a chance to spread my name over there, where Electric Boys could (would) have been very successful if things would have been done right.

One of the great moments this year must be our promo stunt at the department store Stockman, in Helsinki. 5 ò clock one sunny friday afternoon we got up on the roof over the main entrance and did 5 tracks from the new album. Trams and cars was stuck for 20 minutes among the 14.000 (!!) onlookers. What a blast!

We also opened up for Alice Cooper in Finland which wuz great fun. Alice is the reason me and A.C started talking in school. Who would have though, when I picked up my first Alice Cooper album at nine, that I’d be standing next to the guillotine rocking out maself? Alice was great, even compared us to The Rolling Stones.

Musically, I haven't bought much new music. Most of it is basically just a re-run of old stuff, but not as good. At home I've been listening to reggae, jazz rock & blaxploitation and tonight (I'm writing this on new years eve, we’ve got friends coming over) my Itunes will be grooving to a new 70s disco collection that I got from my friend Bruno (no, not the "Ali G" Bruno). I liked the latest Billy Idol album also and some of the Franz Ferdinand stuff. I hadn't heard of them at the time, but when we played at Ankkarrock in Finland, our tour manager told us ”Franz Ferdinand” would like to come on stage and watch the show, if that’s ok ? Michael, quick as always, replied ”yes, at his own risk”. They never showed up.

Lost a dear friend, Micke ”Svullo” Dubois. I hadn’t seen him for years but I will remember the good times we DID share in the 80s, beg of 90s. He was ”jackass” way before Jackass. Something that seriously pissed me off, was that the priest at the funeral said that NO pictures could be taken during the ceremony. The second the first guy got up for a last goodbuy, cameras started flashing. The fucking paparazzis (or however they spell it) won’t show respect for no one, not even the dead.

Oh yes, my new harp career…. I've had lots of mails reg that and I can’t believe people actually think I played that thing for real (?!!).. My friend Jonas Åkerlund phoned me from London and said: -”We never get a chance to see each other, maybe we gotta work to hang?”. He asked me if I would like to come to London for a few days and shoot a commercial for Jameson Whiskey. No shit Sherlock. I got lots of whiskey & good money, just to spend some time in one of the coolest hotels in London with a great friend, for nothing really.

Right now, Hanoi is working on new material and it’s gonna be interesting to see what we can do together, working from scratch. I really hope we can take it to the states this year. I also have a re-release of my solo album, ”Psychonaut” planned sometime early 2006. There will be a bonus CD ”Harvest Of Earthly Delights” to go with it, with songs from the early years before Electric Boys up to more recent stuff before Hanoi.

So there! Have a good new year ya’ll. Be happy, give love and show respect and you will get plenty in return.

Conny Bloom, Stockholm – Dec 2005